NL Central Notes: Pudge, Chapman, Szczur

Writing for MLB.com, Peter Gammons talks to a number of GMs and scouts about the NL Central contenders. One general manager thinks the Reds could "be the single biggest favorite in any division going into the season," while three scouts are collectively unimpressed with the Brewers, saying "Milwaukee may be awful" this season.

Ivan Rodriguez is "not a fit" for the Astros' catching needs, tweets Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. The Nationals are known to be shopping one of their catchers, but Kilgore thinks Rodriguez's $3MM salary in 2011 may be too pricey for Houston, though the 'Stros have said they would add payroll for the right catcher.

Hey Ryan. I agree. Like you I am not a Brewers fan and only watch them every now and then. That beign said, as long as Greinke is back by May 1st and Marcum not far behind then I think they will be a good team as long as they don’t have a horrible April/early May. If healthy though, a rotation of Greinke, Gallardo, Marcum, Wolf and Narveson is pretty good for a NL Central team, or any NL team for that matter.

Their hitting is pretty good too. Don’t see the doom and gloom the writer speaks of.

Marcum is fine. He’s going to start on April 2nd. Greinke will be back before May 1st too. Figure no later than the 25th or 26th of April. Gallardo’s looked great. Wolf and Narveson haven’t posted great numbers, but finesse guys in Arizona rarely do.

They’ve had a lot of little injuries this spring. Nothing major. People question their depth, but even with a lot of starters out, they are 15-9 this spring. Weeks looks poised for a monster year. Carlos Gomez has looked real good in Arizona. If he posts .270/.320/.420, look out.

Lucroy and Hart haven’t played yet, but both figure to get work in minor league games in the last week and be ready a week or 10 days into the season.

Bullpen guys have taken some time to get the kinks out, but it’s Arizona.

McGehee is no worse than average at 3rd. He was considered above average in minors. He’s had knee issues that limited his range somewhat but had minor surgery in the offseason and should be ready to go.

Their pitching staff is made up of almost exclusively strikeout/flyball pitchers. The only guy on the staff that relies heavily on a sinker is Kam Loe. All this stuff about their infield defense is overblown. They will get most of their outs via the K and in the air.

Their defense could definitely be a problem. Weeks is the only one who plays at the level of acceptable, and even he’s not all that good. I’m thinking Counsell is going to be a busy man as an infield defensive replacement.

It’s hard to envision that the Brewers could simply add Greinke and Marcum to a 77-85 club and suddenly become a contender to win the division. Defense, the non-closer part of their bullpen, and contact ability are all problematic and makes me think that they’re a lot like the Cubs, another team built around starting pitching, a closer, home run power, and not much else.

They were what, like the 4th best offensive team in the NL last year? That’s with a negative WAR performance from the SS position. The Brewers bullpen is actually pretty good, and there is depth there. Braddock, Takashi Saito, Manny Parra, etc.

Plus when you’re replacing Jeff Suppan and Doug Davis With Greinke and Marcum, and when you don’t have to deal with Trevor Hoffman’s April/May implosion, I think its perfectly reasonable to expect them to contend for the division at the very least.

Plus they are in the NL Central-not as hard to be in contention there because all of the teams have depth issues except the Reds. The team that manages to keep their best players off of the DL probably wins that division.

were these three scouts asked if the brewers would compete in the NFC north or what? If they continue to have two aces injured then yes, they’ll be the same team as last year which was generally average. Isn’t cueto injured too though? we could be looking at the Cubs making it a four team race with all these aces getting hurt (puking noise).

Cueto will miss a couple weeks with shoulder inflammation that has already subsided and he is currently in a strengthening regimen. He will stay in arizona to get his pitch count up then join the team when he is ready. I expect him to miss about three weeks in April, maybe 3-4 starts. Reds have the depth in pitching that this won’t be a big issue.

Greinke, Gallardo, Marcum is a decent first three. And that offense isn’t anything to scoff at. Saying they may, even “may,” be awful is really crazy. Although I couldn’t figure out why they were sub .500 last year … even with the one good pitcher … so maybe I’m crazy. It’s a division without a clear favorite, they have 3 solid starters and some elite offensive players … how can you not like their chances?